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Chafee Arrives at Pearl Harbor

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS031219-13

Release Date: 12/19/2003 3:00:00 PM

By Ensign Dean Sadek, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- The Navy's newest and most sophisticated warship, USS Chafee (DDG 90), the 40th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, will arrive in her new homeport here in Pearl Harbor, Dec. 19.

Chafee was built in Bath, Maine, at the Bath Iron Works shipyard and was commissioned on Oct. 18 in Newport, RI, the home state of the ship's namesake, John Hubbard Chafee. Chafee, a decorated Marine, served in World War II as an enlisted man and in the Korean War as an officer. He also served as a Senator, Governor of Rhode Island and the Secretary of the Navy.

Over the last two years while the ship was being built, her Sailors underwent a host of training, both individual and team-oriented, to prepare them to safely sail and operate Chafee. Aug. 6, the crew moved aboard the ship.

Six weeks later, they successfully completed Light-Off Assessment, a critical engineering inspection that is normally scheduled 10 weeks after moving aboard. Despite the compressed timeline, the crew met their goals on time.

Oct. 10, Chafee sailed away from Maine for Newport, R.I., after a brief visit to Boston to participate in a parade with the Navy's oldest commissioned ship, USS Constitution, and the ex-World War II-era destroyer USS Cassin Young (DD 793).

After arriving in Newport, the crew practiced the commissioning ceremony and participated in a number of social and community events. Oct. 18, the crew ran aboard and "brought the ship to life." After commissioning, the ship set sail for San Diego with stops in the Panama Canal and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Along the way, Chafee conducted her first underway replenishment alongside USNS Bighorn (T-AO 198).

Once in San Diego, the crew participated in Naval Surface Fire Support Training and exercised the ship's engineering and combat systems off the coast of California.

Cmdr. John W. Ailes is the ship's first commanding officer. Ailes has served two previous tours in Pearl Harbor, as the commissioning Combat Systems Officer in USS Russell (DDG 59) and as Executive Officer in USS Lake Erie (CG 70).

"I am very proud of Chafee's crew," said Ailes. "They brought the ship to life and have demonstrated great skill in sailing the ship safely from Maine to Hawaii and in employing her many advanced systems."

The ship is comprised of 30 officers and 300 enlisted Sailors, including 69 females. Of the 300 Sailors, 70 percent had never been to sea before the ship left Maine. Three of her Sailors were born in Hawaii.